Department of the Study of Religions

Daily Life of Jews in Antiquity

Course Code:

158000155

Status:

Course Not Running
2015/2016

Unit value:

0.5

Year of study:

Year 2 or Year 3

Taught in:

Term 1

This course will examine various issues of the everyday life of Jews in Roman Palestine. For the rabbis of the first five centuries C.E. all aspects of life were religiously significant. In this course the relationship between rabbinic teachings and the social historical background of Jewish everyday life shall be investigated. The sources available for this investigation are literary traditions, archaeological material, inscriptions and papyri. Jews who lived in Roman Palestine in late antiquity lived in an environment which was greatly determined by Graeco-Roman and emerging Christian culture. Therefore comparisons between Jewish, Graeco-Roman, and early Christian attitudes and values are of particular interest for the various issues under consideration here.The topics to be addressed in the course will range from housing and living conditions to issues of family life (the respective roles of the householder, his wife, children and slaves; marriage and divorce; family purity), working conditions and types of work, leisure time activities (theatre, bathhouse), burial practices and travel and mobility.